Importing 200,000 tons of sugar: Making life bitter for 3M Filipinos

Importing 200,000 metric tons sugar will make life less sweeter to some 66,000 sugar workers who will be directly displaced from their jobs and about 500,000 who derive indirect employment . If each worker has a family of five then life will be less sweeter for about 3 million Filipinos.

The Philippine sugar industry provides jobs to at least 700,000 Filipinos who are directly employed in sugarcane production. At least 422,000 hectares of land are devoted to sugarcane production and 27 mills are in operation.

Between 5 to 6 million more are indirectly employed by the sugar industry through restaurants that cater to sugar farm workers and their families, jeepney or tricycle drivers and owners that provide transportation and livestock raisers that depend on sugarcane by products for feeds.

Using data on sugar produced for crop year 2020 to 2021–2.143 million tons—it’s clear that every 3.06 tons of sugar generates employment for one Filipino worker. Thus, importing 200,000 metric tons of sugar, as the
Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) announced, would displace 65,000 workers and at least 500,000 Filipinos indirectly employed by the sugar industry.

Given the simple calculations above, it is sad that the SRA would allow the importation of 200,000 MT of sugar. And it is arriving or has arrived during the peak milling period—January to April is the peak harvest months for sugarcane.

How to make sugar sweet again?

The law says imported sugar has to be classified when importation is done at a time when domestic production is sufficient to meet domestic sugar demand.

Executive Order No. 18 says the SRA has the power to classify sugar into domestic, export or reserve. In this case, 200,000 MT of imported sugar could be classified as reserve to prevent the drastic decline in sugar prices which would impact especially small farmers.

Importation of any food item is necessary if there is a shortage. In this case, is there a sugar shortage?

In 2018, per capita sugar consumption in the Philippines was 22.3 kg. Our 2020 population is 110.46 million so sugar demand should be 2.463 MT.

But per capita consumption might have declined due to the pandemic as reduced incomes meant less money to buy sweet or sweetened foods.

We estimated that 70 percent of Philippine population was affected economically by the pandemic and sugar consumption fell by 20 percent to a total of 1.373 MT.

The remaining 30 percent retained consumption at 22.3 kg per capita, which meant consumption totaled 735,000 MT.

What is our estimated production for 2021-2022?

A sugar industry source said estimates would be only 2.072 MT. It suggested that production is about equal to decline in consumption due to the pandemic of 2.1 MT. If our estimates are low, then there is a shortage.

But the next query is why did they time the arrival of import at harvest time?

SRA has a team to estimate sugar yield in a given crop year (I once joined this team in estimating sugar yield, the reason I know that there is a crop yield estimate team ).

There must also be a team to estimate the sugar demand or consumption in the same year. Crop yield estimate is released every late July.

Sugar consumption estimate should be released also in the same month to know if there is sugar shortage or surplus. We dream and pray hard that the pandemic will be over in the next two years or earlier and the economy will normalize so consumption will return to its previous level at 22.3 kg per capita.

Philippine population by 2023 is estimated at 113.86 million. Then our sugar demand shall be 2.539 MT. Given this future demand, we need to produce more sugar at 0.44 MT.

Let the saying remind us: “Forewarned is forearmed.”

Or simply, if you know the problem in advance, you will be able to deal with it when you need to. First, stop converting sugar lands into non-sugar purposes. Second, increase yield from the current 57 tons of cane per hectare to at least 70 tons per hectare. Also increase mill sugar recovery from 9 percent to at least 10 percent.

Our production then should be 2.954 MT. Sugar can become sweet again, or sweeter.

OR , if you know about a problem or situation in advance, you will be able to deal with it when you need to. First, stop converting sugarlands into non sugar purposes. Second, Increase yield from its current 57 tons cane per ha (TC/HA) to about 70 TC/HA and our mills sugar recovery from 9% to about 10%. Our production then shall be 2.954 MT.

Sugar becomes sweet again or even sweeter …….

[Editor’s note: Teodoro C. Mendoza is a retired professor of Institute of Crop Science at the College of Agriculture and Food Sciences, UP Los Baños. He is an advocate and practitioner of household-based food garden and small-scale biodiverse organic farming.]